Gradients
by Risque Tendencies
Summary: Basketball is the reason they've been brought together and it's damn well the reason they'll be leaving together, too. AoKaga. KiKuro. Complicated relationships.
1. Crimson

**ACT I: CRIMSON**

At times, even he could be defeated by his stubbornness. It was the driving force behind the path Kagami found himself on now, the reason why he inflicted upon himself more pain that was truly necessary. Hoping blindly wasn't a smart solution. Waiting was a waste of time. He should have asked him long ago, just so they were both on the same page.

Kagami had thought they were on the same page. That the plan in both of their minds had the same end goal.

In the beginning, it had been a broad scheme. Kuroko wanting to bring the good in his philosophy of basketball to Teikou's former members. He'd hoped that it'd renew in them the ability to love the sport once more, and, though it wasn't entirely noble, that achieving victory over them would make him more of an equal in their eyes. Someone just as worthy.

Through this shared dream - Kagami, after all, wanted to overcome the prodigies for his own reasons - they'd grown as teammates, as friends. Somewhere along the way for him, things had altered, and each time they stood on the court together, a new energy flourished. Taiga's goals mellowed down to a different version, not wanting to triumph for himself, but for the team's sake. For Kuroko's sake.

Taiga would never claim to be the most observant of men, but he figured it out in the end. What he wanted with Kuroko was closeness, to fill the lonely gaps in his soul that he'd ignored for what seemed like ages, and to have that admirable determination fixated on him for a change. He was falling in, or had already succumbed to, love. The next revelation he'd had after that one was that he couldn't rush things.

There was no concrete reason why, but he simply didn't feel right springing his feelings on Tetsuya at this time. At some point in the future, once everything was settled, that would be perfect opportunity. Not now.

More games had come and passed, a few Miracles had been vanquished, and the real battle soon presented itself.

**. . . . .**

"Kagami."

Contrary to all of his expectations coming into this match, he was vividly engaged, every atom of his being sucked into coordinating his body to play the way it did. The politics of the game, the interpersonal concerns – the only time Taiga had to worry about that was when he was in a time-out like now, the encompassing soreness of his muscles blurring the sights and sounds around him enough for his mind to turn to them. That requirement met, his brain was a soundless film reel, Aomine's steps playing out like a flip book behind his closed gaze.

"Kagami!"

He was aware enough of Kuroko, the shadow's presence hovering somewhere nearby in the fray as always, a palpable blip on his mental radar. Kagami knew, almost in his very bones, when to expect a pass soaring his way or how long he needed to hover under the net to guard one of the upperclassmen's attempts.

Perhaps it was the countless drills Coach had made them participate in together to form a team strategy that accounted for their synchronicity, but perhaps not. Out there on the court, there was just a level of comfort he had in working with Kuroko that meant the difference between drowning or treading water in this challenging match-up.

It was a comfort he'd once re-evaluated after their initial game with Touou. He'd turned away from it in the hopes of building his individual strength to better bolster the team later.

"OI. Kagami!" a disembodied voice berated, their tenor shaking him violently from his sideline reverie. Kagami lifted an anesthetized stare. Hyuuga stood in front of him, lips twisted in a menacing scowl. He looked liable to ask Koganei for the fan if he wasn't plied with a decent account of why Taiga had been spacing out for so long.

"It's time to go back out, so just be alert, all right?" Junpei dropped his shoulders, letting the tension roll off them in one fell movement. He shot Kagami one final look of concern before doing an about face to join the other three starters.

Taiga wrenched himself off the bench, aspiring to leave the remnants of his pensive trance behind him.

He should have known it wouldn't be as simple as wanting to.

Before, Taiga had made the conscious decision to face Aomine one on one when they resumed play, and the captain had agreed. Two minutes was the chance he had to unlock the difference of power that still existed between Touou's ace and himself. He would do it. There was no way of turning back now, and he felt on the verge of a breakthrough. A key element hadn't fallen into place but Kagami couldn't wait for it to do so on its own – he would just have to forge ahead. That was _his_ style.

Slotting into position between Aomine and their half of the court, Taiga raised his hands defensively, willing himself to focus. Even as he felt the burden of the other Touou player's stares imprinting upon him, his attention was devoted to the six-foot-plus stature of his rival, waiting, scanning for a hint of his next movement. It might as well have truly been a one-on-one for all that Kagami cared about his surroundings.

"You're planning on taking me down?" A brief flare of amusement surfaced on his normally cold countenance.

"But, it's impossible for you. I told you," Daiki's arms guided the ball above his head. Knees bent at what seemed a languid pace to Kagami's drifting mind; he wasn't sure if his mind was on keel with everyone else's. Crouching down, gathering up his potential energy, Daiki's mouth cambered into a loathsome grin that somehow lacked any vestige of pleasure. His brows furrowed, that single slip of his expression decoding any doubts Kagami had entertained about his true emotion.

Aomine's walls built back around him swiftly, all in the very breath it took before he finished his exposition.

"Your light is too dim."

With a grim surety, his body sprung into action, bypassing Kagami and pivoting around him as a centrifuge, swinging to approach the hoop from the left side. There, all in a blistering arc, he leapt and shot, sending the ball powering down inside the rim as the crowd caught up and began to roar.

Up court, the responding run was executed and shut down just as quickly, just as unmercifully. Someone amongst them shouted out the name of the play, but Taiga felt he'd known it was coming even before then. He didn't have time to be surprised, besides, if it was Kuroko, then even Kagami's shortcomings wouldn't keep the guy from hauling ass to make his own countermeasures.

Izuki launched himself forward, dribbling past Touou's captain nearly close enough to brush shoulders. Under the cloak of Kuroko's misdirection, he should have been unrecognizable, but then, with the tell-tale shriek of sneakers coming down hard on the floorboards, Imayoshi turned, cozying about Izuki. With a great reach of his arm, he batted the basketball powerfully from their point guard's grip. In unison, nine heads strained to follow the dangerous course of the ball, soaring directly for outside the bounds.

"Not yet!" a small, yet powerful tone burst out, the court lit with accompanying sounds of someone running with all their might.

Looking for all the world like some sort of manic goalkeeper in a soccer match, Kagami's eyes snagged on Kuroko's body propelling sideways in mid air, two hands reaching to push the airborne ball back within the limits. His form then sagged, crashing spectacularly at the base of the viewing stands.

In that instant, Kagami lost whatever drive he had to keep track of the rest of the team. Concerned, his gaze surveyed the scene before him, but curiously, they landed on Aomine first and foremost. The guy was also frozen in position, watching Kuroko with a shock of disbelief. Kagami's eyes then flitted to his teammate, who painfully dragged his way back to standing, calling out to Daiki with more vigor than he would have expected from him at that moment.

"I can't let it go just yet. The ace who's shouldering everyone's hopes will never lose…!"

Sweat mottling the perfect porcelain of his skin, Tetsuya leveled a smile at his former light.

"I believe in Kagami-kun."

Taiga's heart leapt, catching him up in his throat and making it hard to function further. The phantom's words washed over him like a soothing wave, and suddenly all the emotions in the world were following suit, smashing his calm yet thoughtful façade to smithereens. _Kuroko. Kuroko. Kuroko_. Tetsuya's name resonated within like a song as he made to rejoin the game, to once more confront Aomine.

Whatever window to his psyche had too been demolished, allowing all unfriendly feelings to flood in, saturating his frantic, disorganized thoughts with pain as he sprinted down the court.

Obstacle. Unwittingly, that had always been how his brain had labeled Aomine, whether it was fair or not. He was the human barrier standing between Taiga's aspirations of being the ultimate player, and that was only the one example the redhead allowed himself to acknowledge he felt. A shadowy corner of his heart cried foul now. It wasn't just that which bothered him about Daiki, and he very well knew it.

The next minute or so, Kagami submerged deeper into the whorl of emotions girding him, failing to guard his rival as he wished he could and feeling more desolate as every second ticked by. Tormenting memories of their prior loss against him plagued Taiga. He could so vibrantly recall his teammates crumbling under the brutal weight of reality; their tearful faces, especially Kuroko's, haunted him now. Jealousy simmered, forming a bottomless pool inside his stomach.

'_Why? Why am I so weak?!_'

'_When am I going to beat him if I don't beat him now? I'll definitely win. I'm sick of losing. I don't want it to end here! I'm sick of seeing my teammates cry!_'

That was when it overtook him.

Every nagging distraction vanished with the blink of his eyes and he felt replete with focus. Unfailing confidence took root and Taiga somehow knew that his limits no longer existed. For however long this lasted, he was the player his potential heralded him as. And he wouldn't let Seirin taste the bitter flavor of defeat anymore.

Aomine tried to break past him, hurtling down the line with his usual voracity, but, instinctively, Kagami twirled, hand pushing ahead on its own to knock the ball away from the ace's grip. Daiki's head slowly labored to catch a glimpse of him, indigo eyes blown wide with surprise. It was the first time the atmosphere between the two of them shifted, and even long after this game, Taiga would be able to recall the face Daiki made in that moment.

What seemed like an eternity sloshed on by as they grappled with each other in their heightened states. Personal qualms and the determination to resolve them was what had sent Kagami into the Zone, but those fell away as succinctly as everything else that wasn't Aomine and he on that court.

The more he mirrored and countered the guy's moves, the more his concentration evolved to study not only Daiki's steps but all of him as well. Brazen euphoria gave the darker youth's features a wild brand of beauty; he was deliriously giving his all to their one-on-one and that joy wasn't possible for a person to ignore. Especially not when the one watching loved the sport just as much as he did.

Seeing it first-hand, Kagami could kind of understand the desire Kuroko had once shared with him about wanting to see Aomine play basketball with a smile again.

Their blistering match-up continued up til the final stage. During, Taiga was riddled by excitement; the challenge of and the opportunity to play with his entire strength was enlivening and he'd never felt anything quite like it. He wanted to win with all his soul, for all the usual reasons, but new ones appeared each time Aomine and he clashed. Here was someone who could test what Kagami was truly made of, and for that span of time, he forgot whatever grudges he held against the guy.

To the very end, the outcome remained as shaky as a candle in the wind, each new upset tipping the balance one way or the other too close to call. Honestly it was hard to believe that he put his body through such physical and mental wringers in the space of only a few minutes. Yet that was what was thrilling about it. Even when the buzzer shrieked out at the end of the final quarter, Taiga's faculties were alive with sensation, warmed up and ready for any subsequent challenge. Sure, he was exhausted too, but had their strategy failed and they were forced into overtime, he wouldn't have entirely hated it from a personal standpoint.

They won.


	2. Indigo

**ACT II: INDIGO**

**. . . . .**

Predictably, everyone in Seirin's starting line up crashed once they entered the sanctuary of the locker rooms, plopping down on a bench or even the concrete expanse of the floor; anywhere they could stretch out and die a little after expending so much energy. At some point they'd rise up again to celebrate, but not without substantial rest first. Taiga joined them for a few moments before realizing that he wasn't going to be able to relax unless he rid himself of the lingering adrenaline still vibrating through every artery in his body.

Standing once more, he pulled on gloves and his thick winter coat, planning to go outside and let the cool air do the work for him. Maybe walk around for a while and let his heart rate settle. Then, perhaps, he would be capable of settling in like the other guys.

Once dressed, he turned to depart, but paused before he could.

Kuroko, in his own substantially thinner jacket, stood sentry near the door, as if waiting for something. His eyes were affixed directly to the doorknob, watching for any sudden change. Taiga studied his teammate a while, feeling a sadness ink itself into him. After all, if Kuroko got what he was hoping for, then that really did mean a death to all of his own fantasies about the two of them becoming a pair beyond their shared sport.

As he considered that truth, Taiga was surprised at the mildness with which he felt any apprehension. There was no longer that burning desperation for it to work out, and quite frankly he was bamboozled as to the cause of such a turnabout. Maybe he was growing neutral, his heart deciding to close itself off for protection, knowing deep down inside that things really weren't going to fall into place with he and Kuroko, not when he thought about it logically.

"Hey, Kuroko," he called out to him, managing to steal the phantom's attention for a moment, "If Coach comes asking, I just went for a quick cool down. Won't take long."

Tetsuya nodded, his gaze drifting back to the previous stance. Kagami inwardly shrugged and headed outside.

**. . . . .**

Taiga had no particular location in mind, considering he didn't know the area all that well, but his feet acted on their own to carry him a short distance from the stadium, about a block and a half. The weather had turned to snowing, flakes feathering down overhead in a gentle shower. That in of itself was reason enough to keep this excursion brief, but when he noticed where he'd stopped, Kagami squinted and almost turned right back around, convinced he had to be going mental.

It was a street-ball court.

"Geez," he remarked aloud, scoffing, "I came outside to get away from this, and look at where I end up." The redhead's mouth morphed to a frown, grudgingly tacking on, "Guess I am kind of a basketball idiot. ...Well, what Coach doesn't know won't hurt her."

"Besides, I'm_ not_ going to play," Taiga reassured himself. "So she'd have nothing to be mad about."

"That makes two of us, then."

At the second voice, he startled, ruby red irises darting around to sweep the area. Without much effort, they alighted on a person sitting near the sidelines of the court, knees pulled up in front of him and staring Taiga's way.

"Aomine!" he named the guy in an accusing tone. Inwardly, he marveled at the degree of misfortune in which he seemed to have fallen.

"Don't know why you always have to yell like that," Daiki lodged a huge sigh and patted the ground beside him. "I'm not gonna bite, so let's talk. You can do that much, right?"

The redhead settled marginally, letting his lips curl into a skeptical expression. He eyed his rival with a similar mood, and promptly answered, "It's not me that's the problem. I wouldn't have thought you'd want company at a time like this, especially the guy who just kicked your ass."

"A buzzer beater isn't kicking my ass, idiot, it's barely scraping by. You're a thousand years too early to act all cocky like that."

"This coming from you? The 'The only one who can beat me is me' guy?" Taiga bantered. Despite their less-than-prodigious beginnings, he gave into the request and stalked over, claiming a seat on the asphalt beside Touou's ace. "At least I never said anything ridiculous like that; it's a fact. We won."

Daiki's eyebrows knitted together with displeasure. He focused off to another direction for a few moments, seemingly grappling with some inner demon. His sight grew dull, and the atmosphere at the court's side grew tense as Kagami waited for some sort of indicator as to what he was thinking so hard about. Heck, at this point, Kagami was curious as to what this entire conversation was about. It appeared that Daiki had arrived here first, so it's not like he planned them to meet up and talk. What then, could be the point of it?

"Yeah, you did, I guess," he intoned at last, voice girded by a strange levity.

When he turned to face Taiga once again, even his face looked lighter, content to a degree Taiga had never witnessed before.

The sight had the puzzling after-effect of causing his pulse to heighten and his gaze to drop to the ground, no longer able to meet Aomine's own indigo orbs. Why was a mystery, a mystery he got the sense that he didn't want to delve into because he couldn't sure he'd like what he'd find. All in all, things were pretty weird right now. Their tempestuous match was barely an hour old, yet here they were, talking almost like good friends. There was a tinge of awkwardness, but not nearly as much as he would have imagined.

Incredulous, Kagami declared, "You seem like you're almost enjoying this, even though you lost. What's up with that?"

"Hell yeah, I'm happy. I can play again, without holding back. It's amazing."

The love of the game inside Kagami resonated with that statement, pulling a barely audible chuckle from his throat.

In that moment, he reflected back to what seemed like ages ago now - their match-up in the Zone, where both were at their absolute best. Everything had been vibrant, challenging, exciting. The stress of grappling with a heightened Aomine on simultaneous offense and defense hadn't felt like stress at all. Kagami could remember no pressure, only a thrill as they'd circled each other. It was, without a doubt, the best few minutes he'd ever played in his life.

Weird to think such a memory was bestowed on him by the guy he'd found so annoying before, but that's how it went. Now he couldn't really bring himself to hate him, not completely.

"Don't tell him this, but I owe Tetsu big time. Little bastard came through on his word after all, even if it took a year."

"Kuroko's that kind of guy. I don't think I've seen him not do what he says he'll do, and I sure as hell wouldn't bet against him," Taiga supplied evenly, stuffing his hands in his pockets for extra warmth than what his gloves offered. Afternoon though it was, the air was chilled and the snow was falling more generously by the minute. His high had long since expired, and he was beginning to think it a good idea to at least move this conversation inside if in fact Aomine had a lot more to say to him.

Though with the current topic, he'd prefer it to end a lot sooner.

"Tetsu always believed that it'd happen, that I'd lose someday. It feels shitty to lose, but at least I remember how that feels now. I gotta thank him for that."

"Yeah," he began tersely, "you do. He's had that goal from the beginning since joining our team," and suddenly, the words it would benefit him more to keep hidden spilled from his mouth, unbidden and shaky, as if it caused Taiga physical pain to say them. "You really ought to thank him. In person. He's waiting for you to do it, idiot, so don't keep him waiting. I'm not the person you should be talking to right now!"

Aomine's narrow gaze slanted his way, and with one brow raised to the sky, he inquired, irritatingly matter-of-fact, "Who then? You're right here now, so of course I'm going to talk to you."

"Kuroko!" Taiga insisted, hissing out his shadow's name. "You just said you want to!"

"Whoa there," the other teen put forth, hands up as if that alone would settle Kagami down. "I don't know why you're getting all fired up over this. It's too soon for Tetsu and I to hash things out. Even if I ran into him a few minutes from now, we wouldn't talk about the game. It's something I'll do on my own time, so chill out." Pausing, Daiki seemed to recall the other half of what Kagami said and then tacked on, "What do you mean he's waiting? Waiting for what?"

In the wake of his questions, Taiga found himself experiencing his newest epiphany of the night.

Reflecting quickly on what he'd blurted out, the redhead's face colored a humiliating shade of magenta, and his heart ached worse than it ever had before. One part of him felt guilty that he'd come so close to exposing Kuroko's fixation on Aomine to the guy. It wasn't fair, and it definitely wasn't his place to share that. A larger part of him was angry though, angry that he'd had to get embroiled in the two's dysfunctional past, and angry at realizing that the draw of that past was in fact the reason why Kuroko would never look at him as more than a teammate, maybe a friend if he wasn't assuming that label on his own.

"Waiting for you to talk to him," Taiga gritted out, every one of his floundering emotions reflecting in the tone. His gaze shielded itself, eyes tensing shut in a desperate attempt to choke back some of the frustration that he felt must be rolling off him in visible waves by now. He hated feeling this way, hated being so _loyal_ - was that even the proper word for it? - that he'd continue to push Kuroko's needs before any of his own.

"Kagami."

"-You guys have a lot that needs to be said. Just take care of it now, okay? Maybe you don't want to, but if you put it off you're only going to make him feel worse."

Taiga knew he was ranting at that point, but he couldn't stem the flow of his tirade, even if he was only stating the same demands seven different ways and not making any headway. Beside him, unbeknownst to him because of his self-imposed blindness, Daiki cocked his head at an angle, dumbfounded as to why he was on the receiving end of such an impassioned plea. All he knew was he wanted it to stop. His next move was therefore easy to settle on.

"Don't think of me weirdly, all right?" he echoed, voice low and smoky as it intoned the words. Taiga nodded minutely, distracted, as of yet unsure of what he was agreeing to. He got the distinct feeling that he should have a clue, but he honestly didn't know where it was headed. A few moments later, the answer unfolded.

Aomine's lips were on his.

As soon as the surprise dulled, Kagami felt himself melting into it, more caught up in the softness of the act. Frankly put he'd never thought about it, but if he had, he would have expected a much wilder kiss from a guy like Aomine. That this one wasn't was... well, it was exciting in its own way, a new facet of his rival that he'd somehow managed to uncover. His hands slotted on either one of Taiga's shoulders, but held on loosely, just enough to balance them both. At least, that was how it started.

Spurred on by Kagami's lack of a refusal, Daiki dug in harder, teeth now nipping at the redhead's lower lip and forcing it open, causing a rush of heat to spark within his chest. Tongues met stubbornly, grinding against each other in a passionate dance. One moment he was swiping the roof of Taiga's mouth and the next, Daiki was mischievous, drawing the tip of his tongue into his own mouth to suckle at it. Each motion wreaked havoc on his earlier hysteria, dispelling it firmly until every strain of negativity had fled, leaving only pleasure to replace it.

It was in that numb state that they broke apart, and that Kagami's eyes snapped open at last, just in time to see one hell of a scowl traverse his rival's face.

"Shit, I really don't know how to go about this stuff..."

"And yet you've gone and done it somehow," Kagami cut in bluntly. His lips stung from the recent assault; conversely his mind was astonishingly clear. If there was a decent explanation to be had about what had just happened between them, he wanted it. Aomine was going to be honest with him whether he desired to or not. It was too strange and too sudden to be whisked away by some offhand comment. "I'd say you know a little bit."

"Isn't it obvious, Kagami?" the indigo-haired responded sourly, looking more than ever like a disgruntled child who had just been sent to time-out. "You're an idiot, but I like you."

Being confessed to was sure as hell not the outcome Taiga had anticipated, and as soon as the words were launched, he scooted himself a good distance away, gaping at Daiki as if he'd grown a second head all of a sudden. At his cowardly retreat, the other player merely seemed unimpressed. Perhaps even unsurprised. Raising a hand, Aomine ran it slowly through his close-cropped locks, the very image of unperturbed.

Plunking his head down into one palm, Kagami leaned forward where he was now sitting, brain working overtime to try and make sense of everything. Frankly, right now he felt like he was the star of one of those god-awful soap operas that came on in the early afternoon. Aomine apparently... liked him. But Kuroko wanted Aomine. And him? He was pretty sure he liked Kuroko.

'_Why can't any of this work out neatly_?' Taiga mulled pensively, ruby gaze peering between the spaces of his fingers to the concrete below. '_Even if that meant those two could just like each other, then that would be _better_. Then only one of us would be screwed, instead of all three._'

There was just one problem with his predicament - he hadn't entirely hated Aomine touching him. However, the revelation came its own set of guilt trips.

Taiga could try and claim a little happiness for himself if he threw out his longing for his phantom-like teammate, but it would mean betraying him as well. Kuroko had never explicitly told him that he wanted to be anything other than friends (and hell, he hadn't even said friends!) with Aomine, but Taiga knew better. Just like he would know better if he went ahead with the impulse nagging him currently and Kuroko pretended not to mind, which Taiga could easily picture him doing.

"Are you done yet?"

There was a heavy sound as someone haphazardly dropped down onto the blacktop, and Taiga leveled his gaze to find Aomine hovering before him, far closer than his faculties could deal with at the moment. By the determined cast to his eyes, and the brusque way he manhandled Taiga's chin, he wasn't going to be taking no for an answer.

More intensely than the first time, he claimed Kagami's mouth, body weight leaning into the redhead's as if to force his submission.

Kagami was backed into a corner, the ace's tongue drowning inside him, rolling and licking at every sensitive point as if he'd known them for years. The heat began to flood his center, and, inexplicably, he reached up, tugging Daiki deeper into him and earning a surprised grunt for his efforts. In the midst, Kagami came to the conclusion that yes, yes he really didn't mind this. Being entangled by those muscular, unyielding arms and feeling them hold him so tightly was thrilling, yet somehow consoling as well. He felt needed in a way that was foreign to him.

His guilt wasn't about to evaporate, but for the moment, Kagami was too captivated to let it discourage him.


End file.
